Nick
by forensicsfan
Summary: Mussings about one CSI from another.


Disclaimer: I don't own them, didn't create them, don't profit from them.although I do enjoy them. Rating: PG/PG-13  
  
Written from Sara's point of view.  
  
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I found him attractive from the start. I mean, who wouldn't? You'd have to be blind not to notice that Nick Stokes is gorgeous. And his Texas drawl, well let's just say it leaves you a bit weak in the knees. But, yes, there's always that, despite the fact that I flirted shamelessly with him when I first met him, there are a few things that made me take a step back.  
  
Most everyone here thinks that I have a thing for Grissom. Truth be told, I did. I think that I've come to the realization that we are too much the same to ever have a successful romantic relationship. I'm ok with that. I think I was using that to keep me from where I was destined to be. But I get ahead of myself now.  
  
When I first met Nick, he was charming. Actually, besides Grissom, he was really the only one on the night shift team that would give me the time of day. Catherine was immediately hostile toward me and Warrick, well, I was investigating him. Nick and I bonded right off the bat. I thought maybe I might get him to ask me out, that is until that case.  
  
Most cases are unpleasant at best. This one, well, it left me disgusted and somewhere in the process, gave me a bit of unpleasant insight into Nick. Or at least who Nick might have been when he was in college.  
  
These two arrogant frat boys had been responsible for the death of a pledge. A kid really who had his whole life ahead of him. Anyway, they tried to make his murder look like a suicide, but the circumstances didn't look right, and the coroner's report came to the same conclusion. These two guys kept feeding us a line of bull that would make all the cattle in Texas look like a drop in the bucket. One of them even went so far as to say his dad, some hot shot attorney, would get them off. I was livid.  
  
If I had paid attention to Nick's reaction through all of this I might have seen something other than what I wanted to see. I mean, Nick's dad is some hot shot in Texas. In the back of my mind, I guess what I was thinking was that Nick would have been just like these guys in college. Not that I knew him then. I just didn't have a good impression of frat boys in general.  
  
When I was in college I studied almost constantly and I almost never dated. Sure I had friends that went to frat parties. Somehow even when I was invited, which was seldom, I didn't ever go. These girls in my dorm would come back with stories, most of the time they weren't good stories. They'd get drunk and wake up to some guy they didn't know, or worse, someone they did know that they'd have to sit next to in chem. lab for the rest of the semester.  
  
In any case, as we worked this case, all those memories came back at me and I projected them onto Nick. All of a sudden, he didn't seem that attractive to me anymore. I mean, I never asked him what he was like in college, I just assumed he was like all those frat boys I knew of, and this was just solidified by Nick's reputation with the ladies.  
  
I mean, I liked Nick well enough, he worked hard, and he was good at his job. Sometimes he didn't exercise the best judgment. Case in point. Kristy Hopkins. Ok, not that I want to say, I told you so, but did he really think that sleeping with a prostitute was a good idea? Ok, so she said she had quit that line of work. Still, not exactly the kind of girl you bring home to mom. His hormones almost cost him his job and being charged with murder. I mean, I knew deep down that he couldn't have been guilty, but the evidence was weighing heavily against him, and I needed another reason to find him unattractive.  
  
Nick and I started spending time outside work after Kristy's murder. He needed a friend, and that was something I was willing to give him. I refused to find him attractive. Of course, it's hard to find someone as attractive as Nick unattractive, but I tried.  
  
As I got to know Nick outside of work, I found that the more I got to know him, the less my image of him fit who he really was. Not to say that my opinion about his sex life was too far off. The guy talks about it all the time. I mean the way he talks about it, you'd think he hadn't had any in a while. Please, someone as attractive as Nick? Get real. Although, I hadn't heard any rumors of him dating anyone in a while, well since Kristy Hopkins to be exact. Still, he brought it up all the time.  
  
Ok, so he's not the only one that brings it up. There was this one case we worked where this little girl and her mother were kidnapped and taken to Florida from some swinger's party. Nick and I were waiting for CODIS to spit something out and I asked him if he ever had been to a swinger's party. He shook his head, but said if they were anything like a frat party that he had. That made me nervous. For some reason the image of Nick with more than one girl at a time, well, I didn't like it. And I backed off again, creating a little distance between him and I.  
  
Ok, I'll admit it. The thought had occurred to me to initiate a fling with Nick. I mean, with all that experience, and Grissom not making even a hint of a move, I wanted some. And let me tell you, Nick is, well, I've had a few daydreams that would make you blush. But there was our friendship to consider. Besides, I wasn't sure that he even found me attractive.  
  
Ok, I started to rethink that when we worked on this other case. Brass had asked him to reopen a case where the wife died under suspicious circumstances. We were trying to reconstruct what might have happened, to see if the husband's story was really plausible, and well, I caught him looking at me. And then, what he said. Well, I guess I never realized that Nick Stokes paid attention to my figure. He can compliment me any day. Did I mention that his drawl can make your knees weak?  
  
I made one last ditch effort to make a play for Grissom. I just asked him out to dinner. He turned me down flat. I guess I expected him to. I mean, there's too much at stake for him even if he was interested in me. Well, I told him that if he waited too long to figure it out, it would be too late.  
  
You might ask, why? Why would it be too late? I mean, I'd practically thrown myself at him for three years. What was a few more in the grander scheme of things? Well, I think I was beginning to admit to myself what I'd been running from for three years. I was seriously in love with Nick Stokes. It had snuck up on me gradually. We had become good friends and in the process, this charming Texan with his amazing smile had stolen my heart and I almost didn't realize it.  
  
After Grissom had turned me down, I left the lab; I mean I did have the night off after all. I ran into Nick in the parking lot and he could tell that there was something different. He caught my arm as I tried to walk by unnoticed. That's just Nick. He always knows when something's wrong, and he always knows how to cheer me up. I just looked at him and he raised an eyebrow at me and in that drawl of his he just said my name.  
  
I melted. He asked me to come over after shift for breakfast and for some reason, I said I would. I think that it was then that I stopped seeing Nick the way I thought he was and started seeing him for who he really was.  
  
That was a year ago. I can feel his breath on my neck as he sleeps and I can't believe how fortunate I am. I glance at my left hand and just grin. He begins to stir and his eyes flutter open as I gaze at him. He just smiles at me and with that drawl that makes my knees weak says, "Good morning, Mrs. Stokes." 


End file.
